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The report – Two Parliaments Of Pain – warned that the era of austerity is not over, with more tax rises and spending cuts to come if the books are to be balanced.

Seven years of austerity has meant “significant” cuts to areas such as working-age benefits and law and order as a proportion of GDP.

Despite this, overall public spending remains higher than before the 2008 financial crash, as a result of “persistently poor” economic growth. The IFS found that the coalition Government increased taxes by £10billion a year overall as a result of decisions taken between 2010-15.

Carl Emmerson, deputy director of the IFS and report author, said: “The deficit is roughly back to the level it was prior to the financial crisis, although above its long-run average.

On the tax side, the impact on the public finances of substantial tax cuts has been more than outweighed by tax raising measures. On the spending side, seven years of austerity has seen cuts to areas such as working age benefits and public order & safety.

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John McDonnell, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, said the analysis revealed the failure of seven years of Tory Government.

He said: “Despite promising to balance the books by 2015, the IFS say the UK’s public finances ‘compare unfavourably to other advanced economies’ with the fifth largest deficit and the sixth largest debt pile.

“It is clear that under the Tories, working people have suffered from sluggish growth, soaring debt and stagnating pay.”

Tory Chancellor Philip Hammond last year said he would get the public finances into balance “as early as possible in the next Parliament”.

At the time, the next Parliament was expected to end in 2025, but the snap election has brought it forward to 2022.

“Eliminating the deficit before a May 2022 General Election would require a combination of further net tax rises and spending cuts worth £15billion on top of what is already planned,” the think-tank said.